The Secretary General of the United Nations visited the crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt, and said humanitarian aid must be allowed across as soon as possible.
Israel has vowed to wipe out the Hamas Islamist group that rules Gaza, after its gunmen burst through the barrier fence surrounding the enclave on October 07 and rampaged through Israeli towns and kibbutzes, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told troops a command to invade would come soon. Meanwhile, Israel has pounded Gaza with air strikes and put the enclave's 2.3 million people under a total siege, banning shipments even of food, fuel and medical supplies.
Since October 07, at least 4,137 Palestinians have been killed and 13,000 wounded in Gaza in Israeli strikes.
The UN says more than a million have been made homeless.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought sanctuary.
They felt they would be safe here. They came from under the bombardment and the destruction, and they said they would be safe here but destruction chased them.
Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said 18 Christian Palestinians had been killed, while the health ministry later gave a toll of 16.
Targeting churches that were used as shelters for people fleeing bombing was a war crime that cannot be ignored.
Israel has already told all civilians to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City. Many people have yet to leave saying they fear losing everything and have nowhere safe to go with southern areas also under attack.
In Zahra, a northern Gaza town, residents said their entire district of some 25 apartment buildings was razed to the ground.
They received Israeli warning messages on their mobile phones at breakfast, followed ten minutes later by a small drone strike that hammered the message home. After another 20 minutes, F-16 warplanes brought the buildings down in huge explosions and clouds of dust.
"We don’t want to receive aid, we want the destruction and the killing of children in their sleep to stop. We are tired," said Joumana Khreis.
International attention has focused on getting aid to Gaza through the one access point not controlled by Israel, the Rafah crossing to Egypt. US President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, emerged with a promise from Israel to allow limited shipments from Egypt provided that the aid is monitored to prevent any from reaching Hamas.
Western leaders have so far mostly offered support to Israel's campaign against Hamas, although there is mounting unease about the plight of civilians in Gaza.
Biden delivered a televised speech on Thursday calling for billions of dollars in US military aid for Israel to fight Hamas. But he also said, "We can't ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have opportunity."
The conflict is also spreading to two other fronts - the West Bank and the northern border with Lebanon.
The defence ministry ordered residents of the largest Israeli town near the Lebanese border, Kiryat Shmona, to evacuate. Clashes at the border between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement have been the deadliest since a full-blown war in 2006.
The territory, where Palestinians have limited self rule under Israeli military occupation, has seen the deadliest clashes since the second intifada uprising ended in 2005.
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